Photography

Photograph and manuscript collections

The Pitt Rivers Museum has collected photographs ever since its foundation. We hold important collections of 19th- and early 20th-century photography, and important fieldwork archives, such as the photographs of the traveller Wilfred Thesiger, whose collection alone numbers some 38,000 images. The Museum continues to collect photography, with a particular emphasis on well-documented field collections and contemporary practice.

Thesiger collection

Online collection of Thesiger's photographs of Arabia

Explore over 5000 images from Arabia by the renowned traveller and photographer Sir Wilfred Thesiger between 1945 and 1950, including his two famous crossings of the Empty Quarter (Rub' Al Khali), as memorably described in his classic travelogue Arabian Sands (1959).

Sir Wilfred (1910–2003) was probably the greatest traveller of the 20th century, and one of its greatest explorers. In 2004, his collection of 38,000 negatives and 71 personal albums were accepted by the UK government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the Pitt Rivers Museum.

Our services

Research visits

We support more than 300 research visits every year to examine material in the collections.

Photographic services

We organise photographic services at the Museum, including image supply and licensing.

Buy prints online

Our print-on-demand service will deliver you Museum prints direct to your door. We provide size and framing options.

Documenting and digitising fieldwork

We work with anthropologists to document and digitise their fieldwork photographs, and add them to our photographic collections